December 30, 1941
The white flags of surrender still wave sadly before my eyes. I knew it was coming, but I wept because I feared the coming atrocities that our Chinese men here would face. It was only five days ago that the British surrendered to the Japanese forces. Only five days, yet so much had changed. Wherever the Japanese men went, there was murder and torture. They bayoneted, raped, disemboweled doctors, nurses, and the wounded in the St. Stephens College the day of surrender. They were right, the Japanese had no heart. They killed without hesitation. I have for the last few days seen our fellow men being dragged away by the Japanese soldiers. Some are killed, some are shipped to the islands far as laborers, people say. I did not know before, but facing it myself I realized why so many of our Chinese men at Nanjing stood helpless, not daring to resist. The fear was too great, and it made our mouths shut and our feet lock into the earth. Once I read Lu Xun say “It [hope] is just like roads across the earth. For actually the earth had no roads to begin with, but when many men pass one way, a road is made.” There is no road, there is no hope because men here are too afraid to pass one way. The Japanese are cutting rations for civilians to feed their own soldiers, they are banning us from having Hong Kong Dollars and instead replacing them with Military Yen. This means that the cycle of starvation will continue and worsen over the years. With little food to fill our stomachs and what little money we had before now replaced with Military Yen, we are enslaved to a continuous cycle of poverty. Times are hard, but sometimes I go visit Xia Liu lao ren and take care of him. He recently told me of his son’s news, and since then he has neglected his own state. I tell him that he must take care of himself because peasants like himself have been the greatest victims of the Japanese’ abuse. But he’ll only rage on about how he will revenge the Japanese. Of course, revenge. Some day revenge will come and the Japanese will have to pay it with their blood. Pay for the terror they have waged over China, pay for my family’s... China must rise against them.
The white flags of surrender still wave sadly before my eyes. I knew it was coming, but I wept because I feared the coming atrocities that our Chinese men here would face. It was only five days ago that the British surrendered to the Japanese forces. Only five days, yet so much had changed. Wherever the Japanese men went, there was murder and torture. They bayoneted, raped, disemboweled doctors, nurses, and the wounded in the St. Stephens College the day of surrender. They were right, the Japanese had no heart. They killed without hesitation. I have for the last few days seen our fellow men being dragged away by the Japanese soldiers. Some are killed, some are shipped to the islands far as laborers, people say. I did not know before, but facing it myself I realized why so many of our Chinese men at Nanjing stood helpless, not daring to resist. The fear was too great, and it made our mouths shut and our feet lock into the earth. Once I read Lu Xun say “It [hope] is just like roads across the earth. For actually the earth had no roads to begin with, but when many men pass one way, a road is made.” There is no road, there is no hope because men here are too afraid to pass one way. The Japanese are cutting rations for civilians to feed their own soldiers, they are banning us from having Hong Kong Dollars and instead replacing them with Military Yen. This means that the cycle of starvation will continue and worsen over the years. With little food to fill our stomachs and what little money we had before now replaced with Military Yen, we are enslaved to a continuous cycle of poverty. Times are hard, but sometimes I go visit Xia Liu lao ren and take care of him. He recently told me of his son’s news, and since then he has neglected his own state. I tell him that he must take care of himself because peasants like himself have been the greatest victims of the Japanese’ abuse. But he’ll only rage on about how he will revenge the Japanese. Of course, revenge. Some day revenge will come and the Japanese will have to pay it with their blood. Pay for the terror they have waged over China, pay for my family’s... China must rise against them.